Nethaera

We’ve been seeing a lot of confusion in regard to the way Garrison Invasions work and we wanted to take some time to clear up this confusion for you.

Most players will get their first taste of what Invasions will be like when they get into Tier 2 of their Garrison. Approximately midway through Frostfire Ridge or Shadowmoon Valley, a player’s Garrison will be attacked either by a Thunderlord or Shadowmoon force. The quest is just a taste of what this type of gameplay offers but it’s not a full blown invasion just yet. It’s a way to get your feet wet and experience just a bit of what it will be like when you reach max level. For those who move quickly into their 3rd tier before getting this event, don’t worry. You haven’t missed out on any special rewards. It’s just a precursor to what you’re going to get to experience at maximum level.

Once you reach max level, these events are triggered organically. What this means is, as you fight powerful foes among the enemy factions of Draenor (generally in and around the areas for Apexis Crystal Missions) you’ll draw their attention and an enemy force will eventually prepare to attack your Garrison. When that happens, the commander outside your Town Hall will have a quest for you, allowing you to trigger the invasion.

The Nuts and Bolts:

Your effectiveness in defending your Garrison is measured by how many enemies you’re able to defeat and how many of your guards and buildings survive the assault. (Don’t worry, there’s no permanent damage- they will rebuild it!)

You can bring up to 2 friends into your Garrison to assist in the defense. (It’s like a party, but with heavily armored invaders.)

Based on your final score you and your allies present will earn a Bronze, Silver, and/or Gold award for your efforts – each award may only be earned once per week.

How Character Models Are Made

In this new video, World of Warcraft art director Chris Robinson gives you a glimpse at the delicate artistry involved in making the updated character models for Warlords of Draenor.

Free Game Time

Blizzard is giving all subscribers with active accounts as of November 14th five free days of game time to make up for launch difficulties.

Blizzard

WoW Community:

I know how much everyone was looking forward to this expansion, and once you were able to get in and start having fun, all the comments I've seen indicate that this is one of our best yet. But the quality of the content does not excuse the subpar launch experience we delivered, and I apologize for that.

The first two days of the expansion were not a great experience, with many of you facing high queues or significant gameplay problems. We worked around the clock to tackle the demand issues and technical challenges, and fortunately things started looking better on Saturday. While millions of you were able to get in and play over the weekend, with many already reaching level 100, others still ran into very lengthy queues, particularly on the highest-population realms.

To help address this, we’ve expanded the new instancing tech we used to improve queues on Saturday and we’re continuing the process of applying that to raise the capacity of all realms again. This will result in approximately double the prelaunch capacity on each realm, which should greatly reduce queue times for most realms if not eliminate queues altogether.

In recognition of the difficulties so many of you ran into when trying to play over the first few days, we're adding five days’ worth of extra time to every subscription in the Americas, Oceania, and Europe that was active as of Friday, November 14. Things are already in a much better place than they were going into the weekend, so I hope you’ll now be able to focus on having a ton of fun with this expansion.

I also hope you'll accept my apology and keep your faith in us. The support voiced by many of you as we worked through the challenges was immensely appreciated. We're extremely grateful to be part of such a passionate community. We love World of Warcraft, and we're very proud of this expansion, so stumbling out of the gates like this was very disappointing for all of us.

On behalf of the World of Warcraft development team, as well as everyone at Blizzard, thank you all again for your patience and understanding.

Followers that are 3 or more levels below the mission level now receive 10% of the mission XP and bonus XP (up from 0%). Additional information on how Followers and mission level affects their XP gain can be found in a forum thread titled Followers and Garrison Missions XP.

Developer Commentary: The vendors' offerings were previously tied to the Highmaul raid unlock, but we wanted to make sure that players have useful items to spend their Apexis Crystals on, rather than positioning them exclusively as a catch-up item vendor. The final tier of Flawless gear (item level 655) will now unlock when the Highmaul raid becomes available, rather than when Blackrock Foundry becomes available.

Increased the spawn rates for creatures and NPCs in the Skettis Ruins area in Spires of Arak. Additionally, resolved an issue where some creatures were incorrectly sharing loot with other players.Grizzled Frostwolf Veteran's icon should no longer persist on the mini map after being defeated.Rangari Jonaa now has a cooldown on their Scatter Shot ability.Rotcap's icon should no longer persist on the mini map after being defeated.Typhon's icon should no longer persist on the mini map after being defeated.Dungeons, Raids, and Scenarios

Characters with Warlords PvP gear that had its secondary item level activated due to being in PvP combat temporarily disqualifies them from queuing for Dungeons and Raid Finder. It can take up to 20 seconds after ending PvP combat before the character will be eligible to queue up normally.

Legendary Questline Hotfix

Rygarius

Draenor's Secret Power: Completion of this quest is now required before being able to move onto the next step of the Legendary quest chain. For characters that skipped this quest, completion of this quest has also been made into a requirement before being eligible for the next upgrade.

This means players that skipped the quest will still have to complete Draenor's Secret Power before being eligible for the next upgrade. That last part wasn't included until now cause I was tunnel visioning on hotfixes and glossed over the supplemental email for the change. Hope this clears any confusion up.

Profession Changes

Several professions had their recipe reagents hotfixed recently without documentation in hotfixes.

Warlords of Draenor has introduced catch-up mechanisms for almost every profession, with the exception of those which had them before. This is a bite-sized guide aimed at making the changes quick to take in and easy to understand, if you're looking for more detail, we also have a full Professions Guide

General Tips

You can create Draenor-quality recipes with Draenor materials for all professions at skill level 1. No more having to level with old-world materials!

Having a Garrison building for your profession is useful as a building's Work Orders can generate reagents needed for your crafted items.

To increase your max skill cap to 700, you complete a short questline that starts from a world drop (decently high chance to drop), which rewards a scroll--or you can buy the scroll for from Profession Trader in Warspear or Stormshield or your Garrison building once you have the profession trained. See details of these items and quests in the profession-specific tabs below.

Your Garrison buildings let you craft certain recipes even if you don’t have that profession learned--including epic gear from max-level buildings. Players with the corresponding profession can craft more items including ways to upgrade epic gear and mounts.

Garrison buildings can enhance your professions--you can have up to three buildings generating materials for different professions. Play around with your Garrison buildings and perks with our Garrison Calculator.

Crafting Professions

Getting Started with Draenor Alchemy

Questing in your faction's starting zone will let you unlock a scroll that upgrades your profession to Draenor Master (700) and a plan for the relevant Level 1 Garrison Building.

If you prefer not to look for the Scroll, you can visit your Profession Trader in Warspear or Stormshield to purchase the Scroll. They cost .

When you do learn your Draenor scroll, this teaches you numerous Draenor recipes, including a Secrets of Draenor Alchemy recipe that generates currency needed to buy additional Draenor recipes from your Garrison or Ashran city.

Even if you are at 1 skill, all of these Draenor recipes can be crafted. Alchemical Catalyst gives 10 skillups and goes yellow at 600, and the potions give 1 skillup and give skillups until 600.

Crafting Reagents

You'll need various reagents from Herbalism to craft. From player level 96+ and Garrison level 2+ you can build a Herb Garden to pick herbs. This is available regardless of your character's professions.

At max skill, this is replaced with Alchemical Catalyst, which lets you create 10 Alchemical Catalyst and has the convenient catch-up mechanism allowing you to skip several days and do several transmutes on the same day.

Work Orders take 4 hours to complete, take 5 Frostweed, and yield 1 Alchemical Catalyst. If you assign a follower with the Alchemy trait to your lab, it will increase the output of your Work Orders.

Quest Drops

Players have a chance to loot incomplete fragments from mobs that are appropriate to their profession. They can then combine these items with reagents to form uncommon quality items, which can be turned into Garrison NPCs for Garrison Resources and profession skillups.

At max skill, this is replaced with Truesteel Ingot, which lets you create 10 Truesteel Ingot and has the convenient catch-up mechanism allowing you to skip several days and do several transmutes on the same day.

Work Orders take 4 hours to complete, take 5 True Iron Ore, and yield 1 Truesteel Ingot. If you assign a follower with the Blacksmithing trait to your lab, it will increase the output of your Work Orders.

You'll also need various reagents from Mining and Skinning to craft. From player level 92+ and Garrison Level 2+ you can access the Mine for mined resources. The Barn simply requires a Barn, Level 1 and will grant additional leather, meat and fur. Both are available regardless of your character's professions.

Quest Drops

Players have a chance to loot incomplete fragments from mobs that are appropriate to their profession. They can then combine these items with reagents to form uncommon quality items, which can be turned into Garrison NPCs for Garrison Resources and profession skillups.

If you prefer not to look for the Scroll, you can visit your Profession Trader in Warspear or Stormshield to purchase the Scroll. They cost .

When you do learn your Draenor scroll, this teaches you numerous Draenor recipes, including a Secrets of Draenor Enchanting recipe that generates currency needed to buy additional Draenor recipes from your Garrison or Ashran city.

Work Orders take 4 hours to complete, take 5 Draenic Dust, and yield Fractured Temporal Crystal. If you assign a follower with the Enchanting trait to your lab, it will increase the output of your Work Orders.

Quest Drops

Players have a chance to loot incomplete fragments from mobs that are appropriate to their profession. They can then combine these items with reagents to form uncommon quality items, which can be turned into Garrison NPCs for Garrison Resources and profession skillups.

If you prefer not to look for the Scroll, you can visit your Profession Trader in Warspear or Stormshield to purchase the Scroll. They cost .

When you do learn your Draenor scroll, this teaches you numerous Draenor recipes, including a Secrets of Draenor Engineering recipe that generates currency needed to buy additional Draenor recipes from your Garrison or Ashran city.

At max skill, this is replaced with Gearspring Parts, which lets you create 10 Gearspring Parts and has the convenient catch-up mechanism allowing you to skip several days and do several transmutes on the same day.

Work Orders take 4 hours to complete, take 2 Blackrock Ore and True Iron Ore, and yield 1 Gearspring Parts. If you assign a follower with the Engineering trait to your lab, it will increase the output of your Work Orders.

Quest Drops

Players have a chance to loot incomplete fragments from mobs that are appropriate to their profession. They can then combine these items with reagents to form uncommon quality items, which can be turned into Garrison NPCs for Garrison Resources and profession skillups.

If you prefer not to look for the Scroll, you can visit your Profession Trader in Warspear or Stormshield to purchase the Scroll. They cost .

When you do learn your Draenor scroll, this teaches you numerous Draenor recipes, including a Secrets of Draenor Inscription recipe that generates currency needed to buy additional Draenor recipes from your Garrison or Ashran city.

Even if you are at 1 skill, all of these Draenor recipes can be crafted. The tarots give 5 skill points until 600, Research: Warbinder's Ink gives 3 skill points until 600, and War Paints gives 10 skill points until 600.

Crafting Reagents

War Paints is a tradeskill item that allows you to purchase recipes. It has a daily cooldown aligned with that of Secrets of Draenor Inscription. Ideally, use both of these daily.War Paints is a tradeskill item for many recipes. It is acquired several ways.

At max skill, this is replaced with War Paints, which lets you create 10 War Paints and has the convenient catch-up mechanism allowing you to skip several days and do several transmutes on the same day.

Work Orders take 4 hours to complete, take 2 Cerulean Pigment, and yield 1 War Paints. If you assign a follower with the Inscription trait to your lab, it will increase the output of your Work Orders.

You will need a special Draenic Mortar to mill Draenor herbs. Warbinder's Ink is the new ink from Draenor herbs and there is no uncommon-quality additional ink.

You'll also need various reagents from Herbalism to craft. Players level 96+ and Garrisons level 2+ allow you to build a Herb Garden to pick herbs. This is available regardless of your character's professions.

Quest Drops

Players have a chance to loot incomplete fragments from mobs that are appropriate to their profession. They can then combine these items with reagents to form uncommon quality items, which can be turned into Garrison NPCs for Garrison Resources and profession skillups.

If you prefer not to look for the Scroll, you can visit your Profession Trader in Warspear or Stormshield to purchase the Scroll. They cost .

When you learn your Draenor scroll, this teaches you numerous Draenor recipes, including a Secrets of Draenor Jewelcrafting recipe that generates currency needed to buy additional Draenor recipes from your Garrison or Ashran city.

At max skill, this is replaced with Taladite Crystal, which lets you create 10 Taladite Crystal and has the convenient catch-up mechanism allowing you to skip several days and do several transmutes on the same day.

Work Orders take 4 hours to complete, take 5 Blackrock Ore, and yield 1 Taladite Crystal. If you assign a follower with the Jewelcrafting trait to your lab, it will increase the output of your Work Orders.

You'll also need various reagents from Mining and Herbalism to craft jewels. From player level 92+ and Garrison Level 2+ you can access the Mine for mined resources. Player level 96+ and Garrison level 2+ allows you to build a Herb Garden to pick herbs. Both are available regardless of your character's professions.

Quest Drops

Players have a chance to loot incomplete fragments from mobs that are appropriate to their profession. They can then combine these items with reagents to form uncommon quality items, which can be turned into Garrison NPCs for Garrison Resources and profession skillups.

If you prefer not to look for the Scroll, you can visit your Profession Trader in Warspear or Stormshield to purchase the Scroll. They cost .

When you do learn your Draenor scroll, this teaches you numerous Draenor recipes, including a Secrets of Draenor Leatherworking recipe that generates currency needed to buy additional Draenor recipes from your Garrison or Ashran city.

At max skill, this is replaced with Burnished Leather, which lets you create 10 Burnished Leather and has the convenient catch-up mechanism allowing you to skip several days and do several transmutes on the same day.

Work Orders take 4 hours to complete, take 5 Raw Beast Hide, and yield 1 Burnished Leather. If you assign a follower with the Leatherworking trait to your lab, it will increase the output of your Work Orders.

Quest Drops

Players have a chance to loot incomplete fragments from mobs that are appropriate to their profession. They can then combine these items with reagents to form uncommon quality items, which can be turned into Garrison NPCs for Garrison Resources and profession skillups.

If you prefer not to look for the Scroll, you can visit your Profession Trader in Warspear or Stormshield to purchase the Scroll. They cost .

When you do learn your Draenor scroll, this teaches you numerous Draenor recipes, including a Secrets of Draenor Tailoring recipe that generates currency needed to buy additional Draenor recipes from your Garrison or Ashran city.

At max skill, this is replaced with Hexweave Cloth, which lets you create 10 Hexweave Cloth and has the convenient catch-up mechanism allowing you to skip several days and do several transmutes on the same day.

Work Orders take 4 hours to complete, take 5 Sumptuous Fur, and yield 1 Hexweave Cloth. If you assign a follower with the Tailoring trait to your lab, it will increase the output of your Work Orders.

Quest Drops

Players have a chance to loot incomplete fragments from mobs that are appropriate to their profession. They can then combine these items with reagents to form uncommon quality items, which can be turned into Garrison NPCs for Garrison Resources and profession skillups.

Getting Started with Draenor Herbalism

There are leveling improvements for herbalists: you can now pick herbs in the world without a required skill level. The amount of herbs you'll get is determined by your skill level, so you can start picking herbs in Draenor at skill level 1.

Level 1: Grows Draenic Seeds into herbs each day and herbalism nodes are available in the garden. 7 Work Orders.

Level 2: Allows followers with the Herbalism trait to work here, granting a unique bonus (can select herbs you want to grow). Also increases the amount of herbs that can be harvested at the garden. 14 Work Orders.

Cooking Skillup Changes

All Draenor food can be discovered and cooked at skill level 1, providing an easy way to catch up leveling cooking. A "Recipe idea" soulbound scroll has a chance to appear in your inventory for a dish you have not yet learned as you cook other Draenor recipes--including Grilled Saberfish and Saberfish Broth.

Tasting a particular dish can grant you the "Recipe Idea" soulbound scroll for that dish as well.

Fire Ammonite Oil: Cures diseases up to level 100 and reduces the duration of newly applied diseases by 50% for 2 min. Only works in Draenor. Cannot be used in instances. Takes 10 Fire Ammonite Tentacle.

To get started, you'll need to loot Fishing Guide to Draenor--either from looting mobs or from fishing in Draenor. It puts your maximum skill cap up to 700, even if you're at level 1.

Draenor fish come in three sizes: Small, Regular, and Enormous.

Small fish are caught from 0-700 skill, gradually decreasing as your skill increases.

Regular fish can be caught at 100, but are most commonly found in the 525-650 range and are no longer caught at 950.

Enormous fish can be caught at 650, have a 50% chance at 700, and a 100% chance at 950. If you're at max level fishing, a Worm Supreme lure with another +skill item will have you set.

You can filet Draenor fish in batches of either 20 Small, 10 Regular, or 5 Enormous fish at once. There is a decent chance to receive Fish Roe, food that grants a +50 bonus to a random stat, when filleting fish. Other bonus items include fishing lures and "social fish" described below.

As fewer enormous fish are needed to filet a batch, it's more efficient to have high fishing skill when gathering reagents for cooking.

Each zone has a different type of bait that greatly increases the chance you will catch that type of fish, as opposed to Crescent Saberfish. Bait can be fished up from open waters and as bait items are unique, you can only have one in your inventory at a time. Bait lasts for 5 minutes.

Warlords of Draenor, World of Warcraft’s latest expansion, launched on November 13th. The Wowhead team has compiled a list of our most useful guides and content to help you build your garrison, pick your gear, play your class, and more! Our database is completely updated for Warlords of Draenor data as well.

Also huge thanks to our beta testers! We gave away five thousand beta keys and have received many wonderful comments and screenshots to help everyone navigate Draenor.

Warlords Basics

The level cap in Warlords is 100. There are new level 100 talents as well as Draenor Perks, which enhance several key abilities and you get as you level up from 90 to 100.

There are no Realm First achievements for leveling or maxing professions.

There is no flying in Draenor, check out our transportation guide to learn how to get around quickly.

Garrisons are a new major feature in Warlords of Draenor. You can construct buildings to boost your professions or craft items without a profession, or choose to construct buildings for bonus mounts, pets, and transmog gear. You can also recruit followers and send them on missions for various rewards. We have many Garrison resources, but for the basics, click here to see our buildings overview.

Eight new dungeons are available at launch.

The Draenor content launch is more staggered than past expansions. Tier 17 raiding and Season 16 PvP begin on December 2nd.

Draenor zones are filled with treasure chests and rare spawns for tons of vanity loot--take a break from questing to loot chests and kill rares for some XP.

For our complete set of Garrison resources and guides; from basics to buildings, followers to missions, and much more, check out our Garrison Hub!

This guide provides an overview of how to gear up in Warlords of Draenor! While some ways take longer or require more effort than others, we’ve described all the ways you could reasonably get gear in the first month or so.

We’ve also covered how you can modify/enhance your stats (gems, enchants, consumables) and a table sorting gear by slot and item level.View this Guide

Professions in Warlords of Draenor have many changes. While Warlords professions will not have combat perks tied to them, there are a ton of neat things you can craft even with a low skill level, plus Garrison buildings to help you craft some epics without having a profession. And of course, there are new craftable mounts and pets.

Gaining reputation is easier than in Mists--there are no daily quests, you simply kill mobs in certain level 100 areas. You can gain reputation with some, but not all, factions when doing general quests in a zone.View this Guide

How do I get to Draenor?When the clock hits midnight (or whatever respective time zone you're in), you'll see the following things happen:

A server message (yellow text in your chat window) will be displayed, signaling the launch of Warlords of Draenor!

If you've already upgraded your account to Warlords of Draenor, a quest will popup in your quest log, directing you to the Blasted Lands. You do not need to be in a major city to receive this quest. If you haven't upgraded your account, you won't be able to receive the quest or venture in Draenor until you do.

Once you get to Blasted Lands, speak to Khadgar outside the Dark Portal to head to Draenor!

Note: you don't need to be online at midnight to get the quest, it'll be waiting for you whenever you do decide to login.

Do I need to install Warlords of Draenor or use the install disc?If you're already playing on retail realms, you have all the files you need to play Warlords of Draenor - no further downloads or installs are required. If you haven't updated your WoW client to version 6.0.3 yet, you can either just run the Battle.net app to do so, or install the game using the Game Disc DVD (if you bought a Box Copy of Warlords of Draenor).

Do i need to logout at midnight before I start leveling?Nope! If you've already upgraded your account to Warlords of Draenor, you won't need to do anything! You can always double check your account status by logging into the Account Management page at https://us.battle.net/account/management/

What happens if I boost a character to level 90 after Warlords of Draenor launches?

If you haven't upgraded your account to Warlords of Draenor yet, your boosted character will be placed in Blasted Lands.

If you have any other questions related to the launch of Warlords of Draenor, feel free to post them in this thread!

Additional Khadgars Launched

Crithto

Khadgar has cast Mirror Image and some of you have probably already noticed a few additional versions of his NPC around Azeroth. He's there to help you get to Draenor once the expansion goes live!

We've had some time to evaluate the overwhelmingly positive response to Warlords of Draenor as it went live for European players, and realized getting you through the Dark Portal in an efficient manner is important. When the switch from Mists of Pandaria to Warlords takes place at 12:00 p.m. PST, you will automatically receive a quest titled "The Dark Portal" that will direct you to visit Khadgar in the Blasted Lands. However, now that we have four more Khadgars added to the world, you can go to one them as well!

Here are Khadgar's locations:

Stormwind - next to the Hero's Call Board in the Trade District

Orgrimmar - next to the Warchief's Command Board in the Valley of Strength

Shrine of Seven Stars (Alliance) - in front of the main entrance

Shrine of Two Moons (Horde) - in front of the main entrance

Note: if you happen to not receive the initial quest that leads you to Draenor, have no fear! Just find your closest Khadgar and he'll lead the way.

6.0.2 Download Coming Soon

The 6.0.2 Download onto live servers began in the background today, and was removed after a short time, thanks to concerns about the size of the download. However, Community Manager Zarhym reported that the download will begin again, with more details on the new file system.

Zarhym

As some of you may have noticed the background downloader for patch 6.0.2 began today. After discovering issues with the size of the download, however, we have deactivated it for the time being. We'll let you know once when we're ready to start the 6.0.2 background downloader again, as well as provide you with some additional details on how it works and what you can expect when downloading the 6.0.2 patch in advance of its release on live realms.

New Beta Build Soon

The beta realms are coming down for maintenance--this is a bit later than usual as they usually take 8 hours or more to complete.

Zorbrix

Greetings All!

The Beta realms will be shutting down for maintenance in order to deploy a new build. I'll be updating this thread with information and time estimates as I receive them. I don't have an ETA yet, but these pushes usually take at least 8 hours, if not more.

I'll be leaving this thread open for general discussion as long as people remain civil and follow forum rules.

Realms are still up as of this post, but should be coming down shortly.

Toy Box Guide Updated

Each build, several more items are added to the Toy Box. The most notable addition is Autographed Hearthstone Card, which is a reward for completing the Garrison Mission Hearthstone Tournament. As shown in the screenshot, the "threats" you face are popular Hearthstone decks.

Community Tributes

Here's a closer look at the staff who received items--thanks to all the Wowhead fans who made this possible by using our site :)

Aryu's Puzzle Ring: This item is named after Aryu, a Wowhead developer! Aryu raided in Ensidia before starting at Wowhead in 2011. He handles all of the data for Wowhead, including datamining at 3 am, presenting Blizzard's data in more user-friendly ways, and adjusting the database to handle unannounced data changes on Blizzard's end so our tools keep working. The flavor text refers to the constant process of datamining and discovering data changes.

Ashelia's Adorned Waistguard: Ashelia became the site director for Wowhead in 2011! Under her guidance, the Transmog Sets database and Guides were launched, as well as user-favorite contests like the database scavenger hunts. She was also instrumental in growing our News section to cover more beta/PTR coverage and datamining changes. Ashelia also helped acquire LolKing--she spends most of her time there now, but you may catch her on Wowhead/Hearthhead setting up contests or helping with news!

Noxiia's Shackles: Noxy is the site artist for Wowhead! She does the adorable logos, contest art, and holiday graphics on the site, which you can browse here. She also creates name badges for every BlizzCon, drawing likenesses of WoW players and Blizzard staff. You can check out her 2014 badges here. This year her open slots sold out in just a few days!

Each guide breaks down the types of items you can craft including epic armor and vanity items. They also cover related Garrison buildings, 3D models of crafted armor, and general changes to the profession.